


I Was Just Lost on the Path of Life

by uaigneach



Series: 5 Fears [4]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Anbu Hatake Kakashi, Gen, Hatake Kakashi Being an Asshole, Hatake Kakashi-centric, Kakashi Gaiden, Sad Hatake Kakashi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-13
Updated: 2018-01-13
Packaged: 2019-03-04 10:26:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,288
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13362684
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/uaigneach/pseuds/uaigneach
Summary: prompt - being lateThe first time that he was late, he’d only managed to walk in 7 minutes after he was supposed to be in the Hokage’s office for the annual Anbu captain team review (aka blab and brag about your team to the Hokage sessions). Although he probably scored some points by arriving holding a take out cup of tea and eating a donut.





	I Was Just Lost on the Path of Life

**Author's Note:**

> loosely inspired by that one fic where the summary was something along the lines of 'the first time Kakashi was late he was only late by 15 minutes' idk I've never actually read it but I thought the summary was cool and it coincided with my intense fear of being late so

It hadn’t really been a habit he’d planned on picking up. It was something he’d always mocked Obito for, back when he was still alive. Always the dead last even when showing up to things. Kakashi had never really been able to figure out why – he was sure that Obito’s stories were simply made up. The idiot probably just slept in or something. After all, seeing a black cat is a poor excuse to be 3 hours late because you took the long way around the village and got lost.

It wasn’t like Konoha was too big either. Alas, he’d lived here for his entire life, he should have memorized the layout by now. At the very least he should know how to get to the training field that they’d been going to almost everyday for 3 years. He’d been such a mess that even on a good day it hadn’t been funny. He’d always come crashing in at the most inopportune moments with a sheepish smile on his face as if ‘I got lost’ was a good excuse.

Minato-sensei had always just shaken his head and continued on with his lesson, leaving Rin to do a quick recap for Obito. Now they didn’t have team training sessions. With Obito’s death, their team had collapsed. Well not exactly right away. Minato had still done his best to get Rin and Kakashi on the same missions, abusing his powers as the new Hokage. But then they’d gone one stupid mission and Rin had been killed by his own hand. He’d never been able to get her eyes out of his head after that, her image haunting him every time he closed his eyes.

Some days, he could still feel the blood running down his fingertips.

That was when Team Minato really fell apart. A team of 2, where one couldn’t leave the village because of Hokage duties wasn’t much of a team after all. Besides, Minato had been grooming Kakashi for Anbu for years. Kakashi had the mindset and skills, and now, Kakashi’s only connection to both humanity and the village was the memory of his dead teammates and the Hokage. That was what was needed for Anbu.

Kakashi thrived in the new environment. Well, as much as an emotionally destroyed teenage assassin could thrive. He rose in the ranks faster than anyone would have thought possible. He trained team after team to success and he never left anyone behind – but he was still empty; he couldn’t replace what he’d lost with this shadows of people. Despite all of this, there was still whispers being passed among the ranks about something being wrong with him.

He was too robotic and too emotionless. He freaked the other Anbu out – _not_ an easy thing to do, especially considering he was still their youngest member. It was when the complaints got so bad that Minato noticed that something changed. Minato had puled him aside and sat him down for a talk. Well, more like a lecture. It boiled down to the fact that Minot was concerned with him shutting down completely.

He insisted that Kakashi needed to get back in touch with the village; back in touch with his humanity. But the problem with that is that Kakashi had never been a normal child. He had been a prodigy during war time. He’d never had the chance to grow up or act like a normal child. He didn’t know how to be anything else other than a shinobi. So he did the only thing that he knew how to do when faced with a situation like this.

He imitated Obito and Rin.

Not the best idea for his sanity, ut it was the only one he had. He’d briefly considered imitating Minato, but he couldn’t do it, and Kushina would just be a nightmare for everyone involved. He was too callous to fully imitate either Minato or Rin, so he settled on following only some of their attributes that he’d been lowkey imitating for years. He was a clam and collected leader, and he studied medical procedures until he knew it well enough to qualify to be an Anbu medic. He wasn’t one though, only because he was a better heavy hitter, assassin, and tactician.

But most importantly, he resurfaced as a Jonin (still remaining on the active Anbu roster though – because he was a self-destructive idiot) and… harassed his fellow shinobi by acting exactly how Obito had.

For the most part, his odd happy nature was fine and sort of just spooked people because some still remembered how quiet of a child he’d been. What really pissed people off though, was a. him reading porn in public and b. his lateness. That’s right, he went full tilt (maximum effort yass) try hard in his attempt to essentially _be_ Obito.

He arrived late to literally everything accept on Anbu missions because that was life and death and he wasn’t going to endanger people with his falsified antics. But he worked his way up to being hours late to everything. Slowly, but he did it nonetheless. Habits were hard to break after all.

The first time that he was late, he’d only managed to walk in 7 minutes after he was supposed to be in the Hokage’s office for the annual Anbu captain team review (aka blab and brag about your team to the Hokage sessions). Although he probably scored some points by arriving holding a take out cup of tea and eating a donut. People had looked at him oddly, and some eyebrows had twitched, but people just thought that it was a small slip up. When he arrived 15 minutes late to the mission briefing for the mission he would be taking along with Asuma and Gai, they’d flipped their shit.

When he causally poofed into the room holding his porn in front of his face and smiling at them, their eyes had widened. Then he’d opened his mouth and said his carefully rehearsed excuse; “I was watering my plant – Mr. Ukki – when I saw a little old lady trying to cross the street, of course like the good shinobi I am, I helped her. Only some mean spirited man stole her purse so I had to chase him down to get it back for her. After that I came across a black cat so I had to take the long way around the village.” He would have gone with “I got lost on the path of life,” but he thought that the absurd excuse would annoy Asuma more. He pointedly ignored Minato’s slightly misty eyes at the familiar saying.

But Asuma and Gai’s faces had been hilarious. They’d flipped their shit before remembering where they were and trying desperately to compose themselves. He found he quite enjoyed this being late. He didn’t have to wake up too early or rush anywhere anymore and he got to see more of Konoha on his morning walks and visits to the memorial stone.

Since then, he’d arrived later and later with more ridiculous excuses every time. Soon that became his staple – and when he rejoined the Jonin ranks full time, people thought that that was how he’d always been. It was admittedly mainly the new ninja who had never worked with him, but even the people who he’d gone to the academy with had forgotten his old ways. After all he’d been there for 6 months before becoming a Genin, and he was on the front lines by the time they’d all graduated.

Still… his biggest fear was being late to save someone again. Just like he’d been for his father, Obito, Rin, and then when things were all over, Minato and Sasuke.


End file.
